Red Sox get ready to play the first place (yes, first place) Oakland A's

Associated PressOakland Athletics' Mark Ellis (14) is congratulated by Rajai Davis (11) after scoring against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 29, 2010 in Detroit. Ellis hit a solo home run in the fifth inning and drove in four in the Athletics 6-0 win.

BOSTON - The Oakland Athletics may not be one of baseball's glamour teams, but they can make a claim that teams like the Red Sox and Yankees cannot.

They're in first place.

The A's make their only Fenway Park trip this season for a three-game series that opens Tuesday.

They have a slim lead in the admittedly unimpressive American League West, the result of some good young pitching.

Oakland also has momentum. The A's have won eight of their last 10 after taking three of four in Detroit.

They are 5-2 on a trip that has improved a previously sorry 5-13 road record to 10-15.

The Red Sox wrap up a seven-game homestand that has not been easy so far.

They remain in fourth place in the AL East. Boston's upward move was stalled by the Kansas City Royals, who took the first two games of the four-game weekend series, then lost 1-0 on Saturday.

Only Sunday's 8-1 Red Sox victory followed predictable form. The Red Sox dealt with some sour off-the-field news during that series as well.

Jacoby Ellsbury is back on the disabled list, and Josh Beckett could be there for a while.

Ellsbury's case has been puzzling from the time he collided with teammate Adrian Beltre on April 11.

The episode produced four cracked ribs. Initially identified as bruises, they were not identified as fractures for more than a week.

Then, after Ellsbury had come back and played three games last week, the pain returned and he went back on the DL.

As that sequence was unfolding, the outfielder expressed dissatisfaction with the team's handling of the injury, from the initially slow diagnosis of fractures to the return of discomfort when he resumed playing.

Notably, Ellsbury has since backed off his criticism. He now says team and player are on the same page, working for a healthy return at an undetermined time.

Beckett is on the disabled list for a lower back injury that will be evaluated Tuesday.

He's won't pick up a baseball until he can throw without pain. Without him, the club has restored Tim Wakefield to the rotation.

Four of the knuckleball artist's seven starts have been quality starts, but not the most recent one.

Wakefield was raked in last week's 12-5 loss to the Royals. Next up is Thursday's start against Oakland left-hander Brett Anderson, who has a dazzling 1.88 ERA.

Boston will not face Dallas Braden, who pitched a perfect game but is only 4-5.

Pedroia hit .213 in May. He finished the month on a 5-for-37 skid and got Sunday off.

Ortiz hit 10 home runs in May, his highest total for one month since June 2004.

He hit .363 in the month with 27 RBIs, a.424 on-base percentage and a .788 slugging percentage.

The surge has restored Ortiz to a place as No. 3 hitter in the lineup. That solves other questions as Victor Martinez was inconsistent in that spot before injuring his toe last week, and the Sox don't have another natural candidate to hit third.